Iran says ‘don’t interfere’ after latest missile test
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IRAN’S defense minister said yesterday that the Islamic republic had tested a new missile, but added that the test did not breach Tehran’s nuclear accord with world powers or a UN Security Council resolution endorsing the pact.
Iran has test-fired several ballistic missiles since the nuclear deal in 2015, but this is the first during US President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump said during his election campaign that he would stop Iran’s missile program.
“The recent test was in line with our plans and we will not allow foreigners to interfere in our defense affairs,” Hossein Dehghan said, according to the Tasnim news agency.
“The test did not violate the nuclear deal or the (UN) resolution 2231,” he said.
On Monday, a US official said that Iran test-launched a medium-range ballistic missile the previous day and that it had exploded after traveling just over 1,000 kilometers.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif neither confirmed nor denied the US report, but said on Tuesday that Tehran would never use its ballistic missiles to attack another country.
Meanwhile, 220 Iranian lawmakers supported Tehran’s missile program, calling international condemnation of the tests “illogical.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is against weapons of mass destruction, so its missile capability is the only available deterrence against enemy hostility,” the parliamentarians said in a statement carried on state media yesterday.
The UN Security Council resolution, adopted in a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear activities, called on Iran to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons. Critics say the language does not make this obligatory.
Tehran says it has not carried out any work on missiles specifically designed to carry such payloads.
Sunday’s test, according to US officials, was of a medium-range ballistic missile; a type that had been tested seven months ago.
Iran has one of the largest missile programs in the Middle East, but its potential effectiveness has been limited by poor accuracy.
However, Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said on the day of the test that Iran was now one of the few countries whose ballistic missiles were capable of hitting moving objects.
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